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Could this alliance produce a screen which consumes only 0.5 watts in mono mode with backlight switched off and 1.25 watts in color, half of Pixel Qi’s current 2.5 watts, when the backlight switched on? Moreover a screen which is sunlight readable in both modes? We will find out at the CES 2011 exhibition in Las Vegas in early January 2011.

At Computex 2011 we will show two new additions to our family of sunlight-readable low-power displays. Both the new 7″ display (1024×600 resolution) and the new 10″ display (1280×800 resolution) build on Pixel Qi’s award-winning technology delivering excellent rendering of multi-media and e-reader content under any conditions – and at a power savings of up to 80% over conventional LCDs.

Taiwan-based TFT-LCD panel maker Chunghwa Picture Tubes (CPT) has received increasing orders for small- to medium-sized panels from Samsung Electronics, white-box handset vendors and vendors of tablet PCs, and expects input of glass substrates to make such panels to exceed 50% of total input of glass substrates in July, according to the company.

CPT shipped 350 million small- to medium-sized panels in 2010, 139.1 million panels in January-April 2011, and is expected to see 2011 shipments grow by about 40% from 2010, according to industry sources.

Currently, CPT has a 6G plant with a monthly production capacity equivalent to an input of 110,000 glass substrates, two 4.5G plants each with that of 90,000 substrates and a 4G plant with that of 70,000-75,000 substrates.

In addition to TFT-LCD panels, CPT has stepped into production of touch panels through making touch sensors at domestic plants and then delivering them for production of touch panel modules at its plant in Fuzhou, southeastern China, with production of such modules accounting for 10% of total revenues currently. CPT is setting up integrated production lines of touch panels at the Fuzhou plant, and hopes that touch panel production can make it become the largest Taiwan-based maker of small- to medium-sized panels.

Chung Picture Tubes (CPT) is expected to see its shipments of 7- and 10.1-inch flat panels for tablet PC applications increase substantially starting the third quarter as the company’s panels have entered design-in for more than 20 tablet PCs to be launched by PC vendors soon, according to market sources.

CPT has stepped into production of touch panels in order to provide a total panel solution for tablet PCs and therefore win more orders, the sources said. Other panel suppliers that also adopt a similar strategy include Chimei Innolux (CMI) and HannStar Display.

CPT now produces 1-1.5 million panel modules for tablet PCs, the sources indicated. The company is also outsourcing tablet panel production to meet customer demand.

Only Apple and Hewlett-Packard (HP) have products featuring a 9.7-inch panel, while other vendors including China’s white-box players focus on 7- and 10.1-inch models, the sources commented.

Annual demand for tablet PCs is estimated at more than 50 million units, the sources said, adding that Apple currently grabs an almost 60% of the market. The remaining 40%, or 15-20 million tablets, is being shared among the other system vendors.

… the team has returned to Computex with the 7-inch (1024 x 600) panel that was teased in December last year and a new higher resolution 10-inch (1280 x 800) panels offering an 80 percent power savings over conventional LCDs, according to Pixel Qi. In fact, the 10-inch panel consumes just 2.7W in color mode or 0.4W in reflective “eReader” mode.

We had the chance to see the new displays up close here at Computex and were immediately struck by the improvement in pixel density on the 10-inch panel. Making the leap to WVGA has been a major boon, as identical images looked sharper and better-defined than on the 1024 x 600 current-gen Pixel Qi display. The brightness on the new screen is lower than on its predecessor, but that’s because the company still hasn’t finalized things — we’re promised significantly better readability with the backlight off in the final product and brighter pictures when it’s on. The 7-incher, originally intended for mass production in the second quarter will now sample in Q3, to be followed by the more pixel-dense 10-inch model, which will hit production in Q4. Scope out the newness in the gallery below or jump past the break for video.

Pixel Qi and CPT (Chunghwa Picture Tubes) announce today their LCD manufacturing partnership. Together the companies are developing three new screens of various sizes which will reach the market at various times in 2011.

This alliance started early last summer when CPT showed a transflective screen of its own design at a Taiwanese trade show. Discussions between the two companies at that show made it apparent that Pixel Qi and CPT should work together to bring stronger product to market faster. A close alliance was formed and the teams have been working together quietly all fall. They have created samples of a 7” 1024×600 screens scheduled for mass production in early Q2 2011, which will be first publically shown at the CES 2011 exhibition in Las Vegas in early January 2011. This represents an expansion of Pixel Qi’s manufacturing strength beyond its first LCD manufacturing partner who has been shipping Pixel Qi’s 10” screen.

CPT commented this afternoon: “We are excited to be working with Pixel Qi to bring their new transflective LCD technology to market. The combination of Chunghwa Picture Tubes expertise in volume LCD manufacturing and Pixel Qi’s innovative low power and sunlight readable display technology promises innovative LCDs for smartphones, tablets and notebooks in 2011.”

CPT, based in Taoyuan, Taiwan, manufactures nearly 40 million screens per month, and is the #2 mid-size LCD manufacturer in the world.

Dr. Belle Fu (傅珮倫 ), vice president of manufacturing at Pixel Qi, said ”This great alliance will bring out a robust sequence of exciting screens during 2011 and it’s an exciting development for the whole industry”

Pixel Qi, based in Taipei, Taiwan (Neihu) and San Bruno, California , is the first fab-less LCD designer in the world and focuses on high-performance, low-power, innovative LCDs. Its technologies have won multiple display-industry and electronics innovation awards. Pixel Qi is a spin-off of One Laptop per Child where this screen technology was initially developed for the $100 laptop; nearly 3 million screens using this new technology have shipped in the last three years.

CPT confirmed its cooperation with Pixel Qi but added that there is no specific time-frame for either mass production nor capacity.

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Regarding its cooperation with Pixel Qi, CPT noted that it is optimistic about reflective panel technology, and hopes launch the panel as soon as possible because of demand for small- to medium-size mobile devices, but CPT added that the Pixel Qi panel currently is still in development.

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However, Pixel Qi’s technology still requires backlighting and production yields are still a major concern.

CPT has increased its market share in the global small- to medium-size panel market to over 13% from 7.3%.

CPT has announced consolidated revenues of NT$5.25 billion (US$179.37 million) for December, down 8.8% sequentially and 13.4% on year.

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CPT noted that the company is strategically reforming its production line in order to meet product developments and client demand. The 4.5G (LA1) line resumed production in 2010 and some of the capacity was transformed for the production of capacitive touch sensors. CPT has entered the supply chain of first-tier handset vendors and monthly shipments of touch sensors have reached three million units.

Now they have produced another screen technology that is so new that they all haven’t even named it, they just call it: SunLight Viewable Low Power Screen Technology. I’ve actually been holding off on this story for about two weeks trying to get more information on it, like how much power it actually consumes. They claim that it’s less then 1/2 the amount of a normal screen but by looking at it there is no way you’d think this is possible.

Colorful Sunlight Readable Screen at the event Taitronics Show in Taipei. Unfortunately, the company has not yet provided details of technical specifications and has not clearly defined the energy consumption. By comparison, other technology as interesting and promising is Pixel Qi, which consumes only 0.5 watts in mono mode with backlight switched off and 2.5 watts in color, with the backlight switched on.

… it’s a 1366 x 768 resolution transflective panel that its makers claim has a pixel pitch of 0.16305 x 0.16305. CPT further said their display panel has a contrast ratio of 400, reflectivity of 5 and viewing angle of 170/170. The new CPT display panel can boast of a color gamut of 60% MTSC while also having a brightness of 200 nits, all this while being 50 percent more efficient than a regular LCD display. These figures, CPT says translates to a brighter display while having a higher contrast ratio and an easy readability even in bright sunlight conditions.

However, in spite of all the high words, the display still seems to be a notch below that of the Pixel Qi screen and its energy efficiency is not in the same league as that of the former as the Pixel Qi technology is known to be 5 times less power sapping with backlight turned off than the CPT screen that promises to bring down power consumption by only 50 percent. While a 50 percent less power drawn from the battery can’t actually be termed bad but what can be said is there is still scope for development.

But there is one area where CPT scores comprehensively over Pixel Qi and it is in them being already a screen manufacturer. So producing the new transflective screen won’t be much of a problem for CPT. Pixel Qi is however is not as fortunate and latest reports is pointing to them having difficulty on zeroing in on a manufacturer that would give shape to their 3Qi screens. Pixel Qi is a more refined technology but if its products are nowhere in the market, than it comes to a naught. And it is where CPT has a distinct upper hand